A PROSPECTOR MISSING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10018, 14 April 1910, Page 5

A PROSPECTOR MISSING.

MR TOM DONNELLY. ,) A SEARCH PARTY FAILS TO FIND HIM. Grave fears are entertained as to the safety of Mr Tom Donnelly, who has been prospecting on the ranges near the foot of Mount Holdsworth On April 4th Mr Donnelly left Masterton for his camp, informing Mr A. Hathaway—with whom he has been accustomed to discuss his plans—that he was going to get his swag and some specimens, and abandon the prospecting till the spring. It appears he arranged with Pinhey Bros, to send a vehicle out to meet him at Mr Thomsen's homestead on Tuesday morning last. Mr Donnelly did not put in an appearance at the appointed hour) and after waiting for some time the driver of the vehicle, and Mr Thomen's son, went up to Mr Donnelly'camp, which is near the river, and abouc two and a half mile | abova Mr Thomsen's. to make investi- j gations. They found no trace of the prospector, and after making a fruitless search in the neighbourhood of the camp, they returned to Mr Thomsen's. The driver returned to Masterton, and reported the matter ; to Mr Hathaway, who afterwards acquainted the police. Mr Hathawy, who is well acquainted with Mr Donnelly and his methods of working, fears the man, who is approaching seventy years of age. has met with an accident while out obtaining specimens. If this is the case there is little hope for him unless he is speedily found. Exposure on the mountain at this time of the year would soon prove fatal to a man of his age. A small search party was organised, and started for the mountains, at daybreak yesterday morning. After spending the day round the vicinity of Donnelly's camp, and where he had been prospecting, the party returned to Masterton with the sad news that not a trace of the missing prospector had been seen. Constable Brown, of the Masterton Police Force, was one of tue search party, and on being interviewer}, stated that the country traversed in the search was extremely rough. Mr H. Thom'sen and his son. who are both conversant with tli3 surrounding country, accompanied the party, and rendered valuable assistance. Constable Brown said that at Donnelly's camp, everything pointed to the fact that the prospector had left it, to carry out his prospecting work, and it seemed as though he had been away from the camp for several days. It appears that Donnelly took four small loaves of bread and one pound of butter with him from Masterton on Monday, 4th April. Of the four loaves of bread, about two and three quarter loaves were found in the camp, and only a small portion of the pound of outter had been used, and from this it would seem that Donnelly had evidently been away from the camp for several days. Most of his tools were in the camp, but a small pick generally used by prospectors was missing. It was thought at first that perhaps Donnelly had gone to Carterton, but his best clothes were found intact in the camp, thus dispelling that idea. The party led by Mr Thomsen and his son searched in the vicinity of where the prospectjr had been working, and made all the noise possible, in case the missing man had fallen down some of the gullies and injured himself in the fall, so as to be unable to walk back to his camp. Several tracks had been "blazed" on the spur where he had been prospecting, and these were followed up, but without results. Constable Brown further stated that owing to the recent heavy rains on the mountains, all footprints were naturally obliterated.

At the time of writing a search party on a larger scale is being organised, to start for the mountains this morning, in the hope that the missing man may be still found alive.